the sand rinse thread is 20 pages of pure tank moves, small tanks up to about 200 or so was our biggest one.
these are the key reasons we go for 20 pages without loss and never using one single test kit for ammonia or any additives like prime or bottle bac:
-any transfer of detritus is your sole concern, nothing you do will limit bacteria upon new setup if you use any degree of your current live rock. Even if you reduced your current live rock, and added more fish, thats still not lacking bacteria.
If you choose to rinse your sand so clear it cannot cloud, and swish rocks being moved about in -saltwater- solely so that they eject years of pent up waste (if applicable) before being moved over, then you will not get even a mild recycle as ammonia events in a reef tank are never, ever extended low level amounts (thats test misreads, see what a seneye says for the real deal) true ammonia events are tank wipers where the whole thing crashes over nite. We can avoid that by moving zero detritus.
If you want to move some detritus, for whatever reason, then you begin amassing risk. The sole risk you face is not lack of bac, its detritus clouding casting up ammonia into the water. Lots of people move tanks without being careful of detritus, but zero people manage a 20 page tank move thread while advising others to keep the detritus, or the bugs in the bed etc. The only safe move is a totally clean transfer.
-we are tap rinsers. tap water. Because I stated above nothing you do will cause a low bacteria condition in the new tank, ergo rinsing your bed in tap water, or removing the bed instantly to be bare bottom in the new tank, or blasting the sandbed in an oven at 200 degrees for nine days, all are the same ends. That means you dont have to be careful with your sand regarding how you rinse it, what you rinse it with, as long as no detritus exists after. Swap the bed, remove the bed, rinse it in tap, rinse it in 200 gallons of saltwater matched to every param, does not matter.
Live rock that is already matured is such a powerful scrub for ammonia we can 100% rely on even a reduction of it to handle the transfer, the key is dont overwhelm it with swirling mud rot. The #1 cause of tank transfer loss is people moving dirty systems, or not rinsing well, out of fear of losing bacteria.
You can't do anything in a tank transfer to cause a low bac condition, we show for 20 pages. In fact, its more dangerous to begin a tank move without a detritus cleaning plan even if you have prime and other offsets in place, its that important to clean the surfaces of mud before setting back up
Enjoy
If you are reading this thread to cure a tank invasion from a link I sent you, we do not need to identify your type of invasion here we do not need you to test anything at anytime regarding nitrate, phosphate etc Above all, we do not need to see a microscope slide picture of your invasion at...
www.reef2reef.com
post your work for us man!
